The Game of Evolution
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Angelic Layer had come far enough for the research that drove it to jump to the next step. But there's a larger world than that, and new and old mix in that world. It becomes a battle of survival of the fittest, and Misaki, Shuuko, Ohjirou and Ichirou find their own lives changing further than they'd expected - and Angelic Layer and what it stands for ripples further than imagined.


**The Game of Evolution  
Chapter 1**

Soft music waltzed through the open door, and Shuuko could hear Ohjiro's humming in conjunction with once she'd taken off her headset. With it on, she was deaf to everything, and blind to all save the Layer and what lived within. But that enclosed bubble could not survive forever, and once the thing that connected her so fully to it was gone, the outer world swallowed her once again.

She sat Athena on the edge of the Layer and slowly wheeled herself out. Ohjiro was in the other room, as she'd imagined, humming a gentle operetta as he guided Wizard through a new routine. What surprised her was that a silently awed Misaki was there as well, held captive by the Angel's fluid dance.

Shuuko saw that Hikaru was sitting just within the Layer and watching just as attentively as her Dues – until the red-clad doll falls up and Misaki jumps up with a cry. ''kaa-san!'

Ohjiro loses his rhythm and Wizard collapses into an ungrateful heap as well. Shuuko cannot help but laugh at the scene; the usually calm senior was blushing fiercely as Wizard picked himself off the ground and brushed his clothes. Hikaru stayed on the floor; Misaki had taken off her own headset and flown to her mother.

'You haven't been working too hard, have you?' she asked worriedly. 'You're looking a little pale.'

'I'm fine,' Shuuko assured, and she didn't feel any gnawing pain at the back of her mind which told of unconsciousness creeping up on her. 'I've practised no longer than you.'

'Well, I didn't really practise at all,' Misaki admitted, going a little red herself as Ohjiro turned himself deliberately away and unplugged his own headset. 'Ohjiro-san was showing me some new dance moves.'

'Oh?' Shuuko said with a smile, eyeing the boy's uniform-clad back. 'That's nice. Did you need a ride home?' She directed this part to the boy. 'Icchan has left for the hospital already.'

'Presenting his current findings and scouting for any interns and newly qualified Doctors who are interested in the research.' Ohjiro nodded, his face back to its usual colour as he finally turned around. 'I'm meeting some classmates for a school project in the library in an hour anyway, so I'll just practise a bit more until then.'

Shuuko regarded him, then relented. 'Ogata will still be here,' she said. 'Remind him to lock up as he leaves – and do come up with a suitable punishment for him, because I really don't know how Icchan manages it.'

Misaki, still wrapped around her mother's waist, giggled at that. Shuuko giggled as well; it was contagious, especially with the two of them so relaxed.

* * *

At the hospital, Ichirou was going through his PowerPoint slides one more time. Part of him was excited: Angelic Layer was his child, but part of him always kept in mind the fact that it was also a milestone to something greater. And if he could rake up enough support for it, they could be going to a new level sooner than he anticipated.

But part of him was also fearful; seven years of research had amassed in the game they called Angelic Layer, but it was still too small a game for their true objective. To be able to move a doll barely the length of a hand with the mind was no small feat, but it was still far easier than being able to move anything the size of a human limb. To be able to do that every moment of the day, when Shuuko who'd worked longer than anyone with the Angels, would pass out after twenty minutes at the most…when put like that, his project really did seem to have an infinitely far abode.

Yuuko put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. 'Don't be so worried,' she remarked. 'If it helps, Shuuko's not here to see you embarrass yourself.'

Ichirou groaned. 'That's a real help, Yuuko,' he said sarcastically. 'Though thank goodness for small reliefs.'

She had a knowing smile on her face when he looked at her. 'Why?' she asked innocently. 'Has she not accepted your offer yet?'

He frowned. 'You would know better than me what goes through her head.'

'Only because I spent more time with her,' Yuuko pointed out. 'You did assign me to look after here – although I doubt she needs me around for more than the Doctoral role.'

'She still needs you as a friend, Yuuko,' Ichirou said seriously. 'Especially when those two start to struggle.' He looked away from his subordinate and back to his computer, shuffling through slides and making minor edits to smoothen things out. 'Paradise doesn't stay beautiful forever, does it?'

'The past is the past.' Yuuko's voice is scolding, but also sad; she too remembered how close they'd felt they'd come when the project had been arrested. They'd wasted four years after that, diverging to create the Angelic Layer game with whatever funds they could pool, banking everything on its success so that they could have their lives back as well as a way into the future.

'But that beautiful rose garden was destroyed and nothing but dust and ash lit up the path Hikaru walked in her victory lap.'

'How poetic.' Yuuko's lips twitched despite herself, the action caught on the reflection of Ichirou's computer screen. 'But depressing – particularly since it was your choice to create a rose garden in the middle of a battlefield. The war of the roses painted the plains with blood, you know. I'd say ash and dust are an improvement.'

'I'd much rather it – ' Ichirou began, but what exactly he preferred went unsaid as he was interrupted by a pair of girls – medical students by the looks of them, because they both had new looking ID cards and a lost look on their faces. One was partially hidden by the other, the latter exhibiting far more self-confidence than her partner.

'We're looking for Seminar Room A,' the one in front said brightly. 'Do you know where it is?'

'There's a sign on the door,' the other muttered, barely loud enough to hear. But Ichirou had practise; not only had he had to weed answers out of reluctant patients in the past, but Ogata's babbling when suffering a penalty often needed to be dissected with a careful ear as well. So picking up a whisper so close and yet not meant for his ears was no troublesome feat, nor a necessary one, as he doubted the girl had meant anything by it.

Still… 'There _is _a sign by the door,' he said in amusement, watching the one who'd say so awkwardly look away and the one who'd asked him flush. 'But yes, this is Seminar Room A. The pair of you interested in prosthetics that can be controlled by brain waves?'

The talker answered. 'I'm more interested in the brain wave control part; I'm going into gynaecology, so proshetics aren't going to be much there.'

_No_, Ichirou thought. _I suppose they wouldn't._

The girl jabbed her thumb at the one half-behind her. 'She's going into oncology. Perhaps slightly more relevant, but not much so.'

Another truth. Although a dreamer could perhaps one day envision cancer being wiped out by the power of the mind, much like radiotherapy was responsible for burning the uncontrollable cells in the current world, it would take many more years and milestones before they could achieve such a thing. At that point, no-one had even thought of it as a possibility.

'What does bring you here then?' Ichirou asked of the second girl. Yuuko said nothing, simply watched him converse with two young ladies without flirting with them. She shrugged to herself; since he'd more or less admitted he was in love, she supposed there was no point in him flirting aimlessly – with anyone aside from Shuuko of course. And perhaps not in front of Misaki; the poor girl would probably get a heart attack at the idea of becoming her boyfriend's niece.

'I was curious,' the girl replied, quietly but sharply enough to be understood. She spoke with a Kansai accent, the pair of Doctors noted idly. Fluent Japanese, but some subtlety gave her away as being from a different part of town, so to speak. Though he imagined the way she held herself to be more a normality with her.

But then she continued talking, and Ichirou found his attention focused on her words instead – or her questions, as they were. 'You've shown brainwaves capable of controlling and animating a structure like a doll: things like moving arms and legs, closing and opening eyes. But all of those are simple movements, in an anatomical sense. Can they be extended to, perhaps, replace a pace-maker? Or a lung?'

'Perhaps.' Ichirou grinned widely; he liked a student that asked questions, and it was a shame he didn't have them following him around much anymore, moving away from the hospital and all. 'The truth is, it's taken us a lot of time and effort to get us to this point; we want to perfect the prosthetics before moving on to less solidified areas of research. The arms and legs may be complex structures on the inside, but plastic replacements have proven to be adequate. It's not the same for, say, a heart.'

'I heard they're trying to grow hearts from stem cells,' the first girl, the one who'd asked for directions, commented. 'So, basically, these prosthetics will take a few years, if not more, before they're relevant to most of the world.'

'Unless you're a part of the research industry or one of the hopefuls waiting for it to happen,' the other countered, though not sounding as though she was either of those.

_The two make an interesting pair_, Ichirou mused to himself. It seemed he had a potential saleswoman on one hand, and a researcher on the other. Though they both seemed interested enough – or they would have taken leave already, as a few sneaking an ear into their conversation already had.

'You'll find out more at the seminar,' he continued, standing up. 'You're both welcome to come chat with me afterwards – though not together.' He winked, pretending he couldn't hear Yuuko's groan. 'Two pretty medical students are more than I can handle when alone.'

He thought he heard a laugh from the first girl. He probably had, and he was amused even while quailing slightly under Yuuko's glare. He was certainly more relaxed anyway; there were two people not directly connected to his research that were interested – and he hadn't even asked them if they played Angelic Layer.

He knew he was imagining things though, or misplacing voices, when he heard the hiss of: 'there's no way I'm going alone.' Because quiet voices, no matter how sharp, did not carry that well through crowds.

'Try not to scare anyone away,' Yuuko sighed as she followed him. 'You have the entire seminar to see if anyone's interested in coming on board, but that depends on how well you present yourself as well.'

'You know, Yuuko,' Ichirou said with a grin, 'I plan on doing a _very_ good performance today.'

'Why am I worried?' Yuuko groaned.

* * *

Shuuji dropped the Suzuhara women off by a restaurant at their request, and drove off carefully. Shuuko was quick to order takeaway when he was gone. 'We should eat by the creek,' she said to her daughter, who had hung just inside the doorway waiting for her. 'It's much quieter there.'

And indeed, their voices were almost drowned by the stirring chatter.

Misaki was quick to agree, particularly as she saw recognition draw on a curious face, and his mouth open. No doubt he'd recognised one or both of them: her being the Miracle Rookie that had supplanted the three-year undisputed champion, and her mother being said ex-champion.

Whether the boy had recognised them or not was a mystery though, as they were fast to leave, Shuuko with the plastic containing their lunch on her lap, and Misaki with hands firmly wrapped around the handles and pushing strongly. Shuuko gave quiet directions along the way, until finally her wheelchair was securely lodged between rocks that had settled for long years into the earth, and under the shade of a willow tree.

It wasn't the best view of the bubbling creek that existed, but with the wheelchair it was the best she could have. Misaki settled herself upon one of the flatter rocks, using another as a table. 'The creek's so pretty,' she breathed, and she snuck peeks at it all while she spread out their food. Shuuko could easily reach, but Misaki handed her a bun before she could try.

Shuuko accepted it, and watched Misaki cut up the eggroll with more finesse than even she possessed. And while Shuuko hadn't cooked much over the seven years she'd been away from Misaki, she hadn't been a bad cook by any means. She'd also never taught Misaki, which meant she'd learnt it from her grandparents.

Misaki just smiled and offered her a piece of eggroll, which she accepted. But Misaki was silent, alternating between splitting the food and sneaking peaks at the bubbling creek and Hikaru in her pocket.

So Shuuko broke the silence, asking about the new dance moves Ohjiro had been showing her. Misaki's face lit up a bit at that, and she told the story, the slight uncomfortableness she hadn't appeared to notice slipping away.

But Shuuko had noticed it, and she was still watching her daughter's face carefully.

* * *

Ohjiro finished the routine another two times before he was happy enough to leave the practise, by which time he was running a little late to meet his classmates. He didn't bother preparing excuses though; none of them were fans of Angelic Layer and none of them would understand.

In fact, the two boys thought it was a girly game. The girl was inclined to disagree, despite being nothing like a stereotypical tomboy or feminist. In fact, she did a great number of things that came clipped to the female gender: she wore her hair long, often with a ribbon, wore skirts and dresses usually as opposed to pants, and would rather read than play sports. But she didn't think Angelic Layer was a girl's game, just like she didn't think chess was a boy's game – albeit her logic was flawed in that she played chess but not Angelic Layer.

The boys could easily argue she was the exception to the rule, but they, for some reason, never did.

Not that Ohjiro really cared what they thought. They were classmates at best, indifference at worst, and all they had to do was complete an assignment together. Teamwork was not so important as it was within the Angelic Layer; it wasn't the strength of bond between Angel and Deus that would determine their mark. It was simply some fancy juggling and organisation that would determine who was best with what, and how they could manage the project while bumping as few heads as possible.

They wouldn't get an A plus for passion, but they'd easily gotten a solid A for grounded work. But even if it was a B, Ohjiro didn't think he'd mind too much. Academics was not his life; he was not a researcher and a Doctor like his brother. Angelic Layer was important to him, yes, but he was the player, not the man behind the scenes.

He did turn out to be a bit late, and it was commented upon, but he didn't regret it. Perhaps he wouldn't have needed the extra time if Shuuko's arrival and Misaki's consequent exclamation hadn't thrown his rhythm off – but then again, if the solid melody he'd built in his head was broken so effortlessly, he had a long way to go before achieving either of their levels.


End file.
